Product Details

• Actors: Ronald Colman, Hedy Lamarr, Groucho Marx, Harpo Marx, Chico Marx
• Directors: Irwin Allen
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Bros.
• DVD Release Date: October 21, 2009
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002TOL4DW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,851 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Story of Mankind" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Warner Bros. Digital Dist Release Date: 06/23/2011

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mankind unearthed, January 25, 2010

By 

Fritz Langlois - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Story of Mankind (DVD)

Well, if you've always wanted to see Vincent Price as the Devil, John Carradine as a lion-carressing Pharaoh, Peter Lorre as Nero the Roman emperor and Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, this is the place to look! You also get Hedy Lamarr and the Marx Brothers. This is a star-studded affair.
Somewhere in the sky, a well-dressed and ever-mellifluous Vincent Price is arguing in front of a Celestial Jury with Ronald Colman, who speaks on behalf of Man. The purpose of said trial is to decide whether Mankind is GOOD or BAD, and worth being saved or not. To this effect a great many obvious historical characters are on hand to serve as examples of one or the other inclination.
This is served into typical 1950s Hollywood fashion: naive, colorful, full of clichés... and very entertaining! Many scenes look like stock-shots from other and previous productions, so that the whole thing looks like a schoolbook made alive. Price in particular is a treat to watch! This film was a peculiar endeavour to begin with, and amounts now to a unique watching experience of psychedelic proportions, which the eager film-lover will not look down upon.
The film has long been impossible to find, so this is a welcome though expensive reissue (and more so for overseas customers), of very good quality sound and picture. No subtitles and no bonuses.
Also recommended in the same DVD-on-demand collection: THE BIG CIRCUS, also by Irwin Allen (as producer), and also with Peter Lorre and Vincent Price. A no less colorful venture than THE STORY OF MANKIND, it is a more straightforward venture and a very pleasing one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Old Days, October 2, 2009

By 

Christine Edge "Bazza Edge" (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
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This is a movie i watched as a kid (many years ago) with fascination. Is now very dated but is a curio of a movie just to see some of the old greats do there stuff.Harpo Marx as usual magic to watch!!!! Raises a few questions of the human condition circa 1957. If you think about nothing is much better these days

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome cast, fun story., January 1, 2011

By 

R. Christenson "SpaceComics.com" (Pine, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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To me this is a classic film, one of Irwin Allen's epics. The cast is headed by Ronald Colman, Vincent Price, and Cedric Hardwicke, with numerous part played by such greats as Hedy Lamarr, Groucho Marx as Peter Minuet, Peter Lorre as Nero, Dennis Hopper as Napoleon, Harpo Marx as Isaac Newton, John Carradine, Marie Windsor, Agnes Moorehead, Reginald Gardiner, Virginia Mayo, and many more, some of them in their only color film.